Improvement in piles for rolled tubes



UNITED STATES PATENT QEEIGE.

ELBRIDGE IVHEELER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENTIN PILES FOR ROLLED TUBES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 147,721, dated February 17, 1874; application filed September 13, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, ELBRIEGE WHEELER, of the city and county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in the Manufacture of Wrought-Iron or Steel Tubes, of which the following is a speciiication:

The object of my invention is a pile of such a character as will produce tubes of wroughtiron or steel, or of wrought-iron and steel combined, without the aid of an internal former; also, to produce tubes varying in thickness at different points. l

I attain these objects by rolling and welding, without the aid of an internal former, a tubular pile composed of external and internal layers of rolled bars iitted and securely connected together and arranged to break joints, as in Figure l, which illustrates a sectional view of a pile composed ot' two layers l of segmental bars, or in Fig. 2, which represents a pile composed of three layers of segmental bars.

In Fig. l the outer annular layer is composedof two semi-tubular or segmental bars, b b', overlapping each other at the edges, as shown, and two interior segmental bars, d d',

the joints of the bars of one layer being mid-V way or thereabout between the joints ot' the bars of the other layer.

The whole of the bars composing' the pile are secured together by rivets w, which occur at intervals throughout the length of the pile, as shown in the longitudinal section, Fig. 3these rivets suficing to preserve the integrity of the pile while it is being heated in the furnace.

I have discovered that a tubular pile made in accordance with this plan can be reduced to a welding-heat rapidly, at a small expense of fuel, and without losing its shape, the pile being rolled, without the aid of an internal former, into a homogeneous tube of superior quality, and having a truc interior concentric with the exterior. l

It is essential in carrying out my invention that the bars composing the pile, whatever may be the shape of the said bars, should be snugly adapted to each other ,and accurately tted together, and so secured that they canA not be readily displaced. It is also essential that the pile should consist of one internal and one external layer at least, but as many more layers may be added as the desired thickness of the metal may demand. In Fig. 2, for instance, the pile is composed of three layers connected together by rivets y.

My above-described improvement in manufact-tiring tubes enables me to make the metal of a thickness varying at different points. Thus the pile, Fig. 4, having its main body composed of segments, as shown in Fig. l, is re-enforced in thickness at the opposite ends by short tubes or segments j f, and it may be further re-enforced at intermediatepoiuts by rings h h, both bars and rings being eft'ectually united by welding and rolling Without the aid of a former. Y

This feature of my invention is especially applicable to the manufacture of tubular axles, in which the metal has to be thicker at the journals than elsewhere. It may also be applied with advantage to the manufacture of wrought-iron columns, which demand increased thickness of metal at given points.

It is not essential that the tubes should be of cylindrical form, for they may be made by my process of any desired sectional shape, either by forming a cylindrical tube rst, and converting it by rolling into a tube oi square or other form, or by making the pile in the first instance of a form corresponding to that of the desired tube. Fig. 5, for instance, illustrates the section of a square pile for a square tube. Y

I claim as my inventionl.' A tubular pile composed of layers of rolled bars and internal shorter bars, tubes, or rings securely connected, as set forth.

2. A rolled tube varying in thickness atdit'- ferent points, as specitied.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' ELBRIDGE WHEELER.

Vitnesses:

WM. A. STEEL, HARRY W. DoUTr. 

